Hello, and welcome to The Edge, the newsletter that brings you groundbreaking stories from the frontiers of technology and science.
We’ve got some great stories for you today, including edgy superconducters, dancing black holes and how to play Tetris on your sleeve. As always, we’ve added extra stories under each article should you find yourself in a curious state of mind.
Who needs a controller anyway
Image credit: North Carolina State University
Researchers control a game of Tetris using a breathable wearable sleeve
Researchers from North Carolina State University have created an ultra thin, stretchable electronic material that is breathable, or gas permeable. And to test its capabilities, they used it to control a game of Tetris. The researchers believe the material could be used for wearable and biomedical technologies - as the material allows sweat to evaporate, wearing it is a great deal more comfortable.
To create the material, researchers used what’s known as the breath figure method. They created a stretchable polymer film with evenly distributed holes. They then coated the film by dipping it into a solution full of silver nanowires. Then the material was heat-pressed which sealed the nanowires in place. The technology paves the way for the development of wearable sensors or user interfaces that can be worn, comfortably, for long periods of time.
A breathable fabric from the ‘40s - Ventile
A challenger to Ryzen
Image credit: Intel
Intel Comet Lake-S is here with up to 10 cores to challenge AMD Ryzen
Intel has finally released its Comet Lake-S series of processors, with the best processors in the new series featuring up to 10 cores and boosted clock speeds of up to 5,3GHz. The standout in the Comet Lake-S range is the Intel Core i9-10900K, which features a 10-core, 20-thread chip with a maxed out turbo boost of 5.3GHz across two of the ten cores.
The increased thermal load of these processors has increased the TDP (thermal design power) across the board - the aforementioned i9-10900K now has a TDP of 125W. To combat this, Intel is using thinner levels of silicon in the processors. They’ve also increased the copper IHS (integrated heat spreader) and brought back soldered thermal interface materials. Combined, all of this should, in theory, lower heat across the board, allowing the processors to function optimally.
Serious processing power
Processors - the beginning to now
Edgy currents
Image credit: Pixtum/Istock/Getty Images Plus
Newfound superconducting current travels along a material’s edge
Materials are superconductive when they allow electricity to flow without offering any resistance. In superconductive materials, the electric current permeates the entirety of the material through which is passes. However, scientists have found that a thin slice of molybdenum ditelluride chilled to near absolute zero makes strange things happens - both the interior and the edge of the thin slice become distinct superconductors.
This feature means that molybdenum ditelluride is what’s known as a topological material. In the mathematical field of topology, shapes are considered distinct solely if it can’t be moulded into another shape without welding or cutting. Some scientists believed that topological superconductors might also allow for superconducting currents on their edges, but this is the first time it has been observed.
The findings are applicable the world of quantum computing, with scientists expecting topological quantum computers to be able to fix some of the issues that impair quantum calculations.
What superconductivity means for the future
Busting massive moves
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Flashy ‘dance’ of two monster black holes captured by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope
Not even light can escape the massive gravitational pulls of black holes, meaning they’re quite hard to observe. However, one pair of black holes that seem to be dancing around each other has fascinated astronomers for a while. The key thing here is that, every so often, this pair of black holes occasionally produces bright flashes of light - flashes that are brighter than a trillion stars, or the entire Milky Way.
The image above is an artist’s impression of the two black holes which are located in a galaxy called OJ287, 3.5 billion light years from Earth. The larger of the two black holes is truly gargantuan, at around 18 billion times the mass of the sun. The smaller one, while also huge, is ‘only’ 150 million times the mass of the sun. After 120 years of observations, astronomers have figured out exactly how these black holes orbit one another, thanks to data from the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope.
Twice every 12 years, the smaller black hole passes through the accretion disk of the larger one. This is what causes the bright flashes of light. However, the smaller black hole’s or orbit is irregular, meaning that the flashes don’t occur regularly. They might occur within a one-year gap or might be separated by a decade. Thanks to the serendipitous position of the Spitzer Space Telescope at the time (and the incorporation of gravitational waves and the ‘no-hair theorem’ into calculations), astronomers were able to predict a 4-hour time frame for when the flashes would occur.